Broken Veil (Harbinger #5)(98)

They spent hours together poring over his studies, especially the map he had made of the latest victims of the cholera morbus. Some days they traveled together to new neighborhoods where deaths had been reported. The danger she’d felt as a child in the Fells was slowly changing. Officers from the Ministry of War had been assigned to patrol the streets. The gangs feared the dragoons, and so the thievery and violence had diminished. There were also many construction projects underway, putting people to work and improving their living conditions.

Cettie had always shared Adam’s passion for the work of the Ministry of Wind, and the days seemed to go by in a blur. At the end of each day, she’d return by zephyr to Fog Willows. Part of her didn’t want to go back. She wanted to stay with him. He didn’t speak of Anna, which made her wonder whether there was indeed something between the two of them. She dared not ask. To be near to him and discuss his work at the hospital was not a duty to her. It was a passion. Her mind kept racing to solve the mystery of the disease. Though Adam had come so far on his own, something was still missing.

A week after the trial ended, she was poring over his map yet again in his office, the two of them alone, considering the various houses and buildings. Why were so many of the deaths clustered in the same general area? Not all of them, of course, but so many.

“There is something they have in common,” Cettie whispered. “We just can’t see it.”

“There were four more deaths yesterday,” he said, joining her at the map. “Here and here. Three from one household. One from that house, there.”

Cettie remembered walking down that street with Adam over the last week. She could imagine the houses perfectly in her mind. She remembered the cries of street vendors, the rush of children, the washerwomen gathered at one of the Leering wells washing clothes.

Cettie remembered how filthy the water was.

“The Water Leering,” Cettie said, the image of the gouged face hidden from sight with stone panels sharp in her mind.

“I’ve examined the Leering,” Adam said, shaking his head. “It’s perfectly sound. The water is clear. It supplies the entire neighborhood.”

Cettie scrunched up her nose. “But the water in the fountain . . . the water they wash with. That water is filthy.”

“Of course. So is the water from all the fountains.”

Cettie stared at the map. A thought niggled in her mind.

“What if the disease is in the filthy water? Some people are so thirsty they’ll drink anything. What if . . . what if something is poisoning the water after it comes out of the Leerings?”

Adam gazed at her. “Why would anyone drink from it?”

“Let’s go back to the Leering well we went to yesterday. The one here,” Cettie said, pointing to the middle of the dark marks on the map.

“Very well.”

He grabbed his coat and her cloak, and the two of them left Killingworth together, walking side by side down the busy street. In half an hour, they had arrived at the well and found, as they had before, the washerwomen scrubbing laundry in the fetid water.

“Let’s sit for a while and just watch,” Cettie suggested.

They picked a place away from the others and sat on the edge of the fountain. Just as they both remembered, the water was murky and full of filth.

“I appreciate that you keep coming every day,” Adam said, folding his arms. He didn’t look at her, just gazed at the crowd walking to and fro around the fountain.

“I like coming to the hospital,” Cettie said, rubbing her palm on the smooth cool stone.

“Could you see yourself living in the Fells someday?” he asked her. “It’s changed quite a bit already, and Sera says her work isn’t done.”

She felt a prickle of gooseflesh on her arms. “What do you mean?” she asked, looking the other way.

“If you had to choose between Fog Willows . . . and living here.”

She swallowed, feeling heat rising up her neck. “Do you need more help at the hospital?” She glanced his way.

“Always.” He chuckled softly. “But that’s not what I had in mind.”

She licked her lips. “What did you have in mind?”

He turned and met her gaze. “I still love you, Cettie. I’ve never stopped loving you.”

Her heart lifted. She’d longed so dearly to hear those words from him again. Had she dared believe he might say them? “What about Anna?” she forced herself to ask.

Adam’s eyes softened. “I tried loving her. I knew you’d expect me to. So did she. We went on walks together at Fog Willows. Sometimes she came here, but she was always so uncomfortable. Not like you.” He looked down. “At the end of the trial, she told me that she wanted you and me to be happy. She knew she’d rather have me as a brother than lose me to the family completely.” He stared into Cettie’s eyes. “I did try, Cettie. But my heart wouldn’t have it.”

Cettie folded her hands on her lap. “After all I’ve done?”

His hand snaked over and clasped hers. Then he met her eyes again. “It’s you. Or it’s no one. Take as long as you need to decide. I’ll keep waiting. I didn’t want to rush you.”

She didn’t need time to decide. Her greatest hope had been answered.

“I will,” she whispered to him, smiling. She could imagine their future together at Killingworth. Husband and wife, they would work side by side to right wrongs and provide for their people. From time to time, Sera would need her as a protector, a guardian, and a hunter of evil people who sought to destroy the peace they were cultivating, but this would be her home. He would be her home.